218 The Wilderness Hunter. 



single wolf may overcome and slaughter a big bull moose ; 

 but with a fair chance no one or two wolves would be a 

 match for it. Desperate combats take place before a 

 small pack of wolves can master the shovel-horned quarry, 

 unless it is taken at a hopeless disadvantage ; and in these 

 battles the prowess of the moose is shown by the fact that 

 it is no unusual thing for it to kill one or more of the 

 ravenous throng ; generally by a terrific blow of the fore- 

 leg, smashing a wolf's skull or breaking its back. I have 

 known of several instances of wolves being found dead, 

 having perished in this manner. Still the battle usually 

 ends the other way, the wolves being careful to make the 

 attack with the odds in their favor ; and even a small pack 

 of the ferocious brutes will in a single winter often drive 

 the moose completely out of a given district. Both 

 cougar and bear generally reckon on taking the moose 

 unawares, when they jump on it. In one case that came 

 to my knowledge a black bear was killed by a cow moose 

 whose calf he had attacked. 



In the northeast a favorite method of hunting the 

 moose is by "calling" the bulls in the rutting season, at 

 dawn or nightfall ; the caller imitating their cries through 

 a birch-bark trumpet. If the animals are at all wary, this 

 kind of sport can only be carried on in still weather, as the 

 approaching bull always tries to get the wind of the caller. 

 It is also sometimes slain by fire-hunting, from a canoe, 

 as the deer are killed in the Adirondacks. This, however, 

 is but an ignoble sport ; and to kill the animal while 

 it is swimming in a lake is worse. However, there is 

 sometimes a spice of excitement even in these unworthy 



